THE EYES
In one of the Platonic dialogues Sokrates points out the relativity of standards of Beauty. “Is not,” he asks in effect, “the most beautiful ape ugly compared to a maiden? and is not the maiden, in turn, inferior in beauty to a goddess?”
Regarding most of the human features it may be conceded that Sokrates is right in his second question. To find a human forehead, nose, or mouth that could not be improved in some respect, is perhaps impossible. But one feature must be excepted. There are human eyes which no artist with a goddess for a model could make more divine. And of these glorious orbs there are so many, in every country, that one cannot help concluding that Schopenhauer made a great mistake in placing the face, with the eyes, so low down in his list of love-inspiring human qualities. On the contrary, I am convinced that no feminine charm so frequently and so fatally fascinates men as lovely eyes, and that it is for this reason that Sexual Selection has done more to perfect the eyes than any other part of the body.
When Petruchio says of Katharina that “she looks as clear as morning roses newly washed with dew,” he compliments her complexion; but when the Persian poet compares “a violet sparkling with dew” to “the blue eyes of a beautiful girl in tears,” the compliment is to the violet. A woman’s eye is the most beautiful object in the universe; and what made it so is man’s Romantic Love.
Putting poetry aside, we must now consider a few scientific facts and correct a few misconceptions regarding the eye, its colour, lustre, form, and expression.